He paused.

“And there is in fact no reason why any one should wish to cross it.  It is absolutely barren.  We pointed out all this very carefully to Major Carstair when we learned what he had in plan, for as I have said his welfare was very pressingly on our conscience.  We were profoundly puzzled about what he was seeking in the Gobi.  He was not, evidently, intending to plot the region or to survey any route, or to acquire any scientific data.  His equipment lacked all the implements for such work.  It was a long time before we understood the impulse that was moving Major Carstair to enter this waste region of the Gobi to the north.”

The man stopped, and sat for some moments quite motionless.

“Your father,” he went on, “was a distinguished man in one of the departments of human endeavor which the East has always neglected; and in it he had what seemed to us incredible skill — with ease he was able to do things which we considered impossible.  And for this reason the impulse taking him into the Gobi seemed entirely incredible to us; it seemed entirely inconsistent with this special ability which we knew the man to possess; and for a long time we rejected it, believing ourselves to be somehow misled.”

The girl sat straight and silent, in her chair near the brass fender to the right of the buhl table; the drawing, showing the white granite shaft, held idly in her fingers; the illuminated vellum wrapper fallen to the floor.

The man continued speaking slowly.

“When, finally, it was borne in upon us that Major Carstair was seeking a treasure somewhere on the barren plateau of the Gobi, we took every measure, consistent with a proper courtesy, to show him how fantastic this notion was.  We had, in fact, to exercise a certain care lest the very absurdity of the conception appear too conspicuously in our discourse.”

He looked across the table at the girl.

The man’s great bald head seemed to sink a little into his shoulders, as in some relaxation.

“We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it.  We explained the topography of this desert plateau; the exact physical character of its relief.  There was hardly a square mile of it that we did not know in some degree, and of which we did not possess some fairly accurate data.  It was entirely inconceivable that any object of value could exist in this region without our knowledge of it.”

The man was speaking like one engaged in some extremely delicate mechanical affair, requiring an accuracy almost painful in its exactness.

“Then, profoundly puzzled, we endeavored to discover what data Major Carstair possessed that could in any way encourage him in this fantastic idea.  It was a difficult thing to do, for we held him in the highest esteem and, outside of this bizarre notion, we had before us, beyond any question, the evidence of his especial knowledge; and, as I have said, his, to us, incredible skill.”